System Requirements

Manufacturer Information

Part Number

Mfr. Part Number: STHG5000402

UPC or EAN No.: 763649130650

Warranty

Note: Apple’s one-year limited warranty does not apply to products that are not Apple-branded, even if they are packaged or sold with Apple products. Non–Apple-branded products may have the benefit of a manufacturer’s warranty provided by the product manufacturer. Please see the product box and literature for details. Rights under the product manufacturer’s warranty are in addition to any rights you have under Australian consumer law.

It's a portable hard drive: works as desired, while looking nice.

As title says, it's pretty much like any other portable hard drive. Being LaCie, the internal drive is a Seagate one (they own the LaCie company). Works as expe
As title says, it's pretty much like any other portable hard drive. Being LaCie, the internal drive is a Seagate one (they own the LaCie company). Works as expected.
Hardware...
- Speed: ~140 read/write, via Blackmagic Disk Speed Test.
Tested fresh-out-the-box/empty, formatted as it arrives (ExFAT), AND again after using the included Toolkit app (see more info below) to reformat into HFS+.
The included Toolkit app advises Mac users they'll get better speed if HFS+formatted, but TBH I saw no difference before and after. (remember that later-on, as HDDs fill, they can slow down, especially with only ~20% of drive space left on them. So you may get slower speeds on all HDDs later, as you fill them up).
- Noise: Quiet, like most portable HDDs.
- Heat: Not hot, just warm, pretty much like most portable HDDs.
- Cables: You get two separate black ones, each 50cm (20-inch), one is USB-C-to-USB-C, one is USB-C-to-USB-A. Interestingly they both have the "USB SS 10" logo on them, implying they work at gen.2 10Gbps speed rather then the 5Gbps speed of gen.1 (but in reality, this means nothing, as these spinning HDDs never get anywhere ~1 GByte/s you'd get on a high-end SSD or a large disk RAID array! So ignore it.)
For comparison, WD's newest portables typically give you a single USB-C-to-USB-C cable, with an additional USB-C-to-USB-A adapter "head" in the box (which, strangely, isn't supposed to be possible under USB-IF guidelines, only the other way around A-into-C. So that's weird, lol!).
- Format: Comes in ExFAT (suitable for Win and Mac). Though the "Toolkit" software will advise Mac users to reformat into HFS+ (not APFS format; because AFAIK, externally connected drives are not recommended to use it yet, and/or offer little advantage for externally connected HDD's anyway.)
- Volume size: At 5TB, this is currently the largest size generally available of portable HDD, so is very decent if you need 5TBs (WD only offer 4TB max, at time of writing), and especially given portable SSD's typically stop at 2TB for around 1.5 times the price of this, obviously giving you good storage size value at the loss of SSD-type speeds.
- Design: This is really where this one is a winner, IMO. If you care a bit about things having a pleasing aesthetic while you are using them, then this just may be for you. I like the way LaCie here have done the interesting diamond cut design on both the edges and corners. And being metal, similar to Apple's stuff (hence their Space Grey exclusive colour!), it has a quality feel.
I bought the Space Grey 5TB version, the other colour being obviously silver (Moon Silver to be precise) to match Apple's aesthetics, but there are ones in TB sizes 1/2/4/5 to fit ones need (although the 1TB model is only available in the silver not grey).
- Warranty: 2-year limited hardware warranty.
Software/services included...
- "Toolkit": Syncs files between mirrored folders on your computer and portable drives.
- "Seagate Rescue plan": AFAICT, you don't get even 1yr included, instead they are offering this as upgrade options (10 USD/2yrs or 15 USD/3yrs), quote:
'Purchase to gain peace of mind knowing your files are protected even when a device fails. In the event of a drive crash, virus or failure your data can be retrieved at no extra cost!'
- Adobe Creative Cloud, All Apps: You get 1 month subscription free of Adobe's "All Apps" plan level, for you to trial as many as you want within the month. When setting up the drive, it'll walk you through getting it and you'll need to give them your card info in order to do so -- you may want to unsubscribe straight away, if you think you will forget to do so a month later! (AFAIU, current CC users may be able to add the month to an existing plan?).
So that's it really. Now go and buy one!

Written by James S from London

02/03/2019

18 of 19 people found this useful

Is this review useful?It's a portable hard drive: works as desired, while looking nice.

4.0 out of 5 stars

It's a portable hard drive: works as desired, while looking nice.

As title says, it's pretty much like any other portable hard drive. Being LaCie, the internal drive is a Seagate one (they own the LaCie company). Works as expe
As title says, it's pretty much like any other portable hard drive. Being LaCie, the internal drive is a Seagate one (they own the LaCie company). Works as expected.
Hardware...
- Speed: ~140 read/write, via Blackmagic Disk Speed Test.
Tested fresh-out-the-box/empty, formatted as it arrives (ExFAT), AND again after using the included Toolkit app (see more info below) to reformat into HFS+.
The included Toolkit app advises Mac users they'll get better speed if HFS+formatted, but TBH I saw no difference before and after. (remember that later-on, as HDDs fill, they can slow down, especially with only ~20% of drive space left on them. So you may get slower speeds on all HDDs later, as you fill them up).
- Noise: Quiet, like most portable HDDs.
- Heat: Not hot, just warm, pretty much like most portable HDDs.
- Cables: You get two separate black ones, each 50cm (20-inch), one is USB-C-to-USB-C, one is USB-C-to-USB-A. Interestingly they both have the "USB SS 10" logo on them, implying they work at gen.2 10Gbps speed rather then the 5Gbps speed of gen.1 (but in reality, this means nothing, as these spinning HDDs never get anywhere ~1 GByte/s you'd get on a high-end SSD or a large disk RAID array! So ignore it.)
For comparison, WD's newest portables typically give you a single USB-C-to-USB-C cable, with an additional USB-C-to-USB-A adapter "head" in the box (which, strangely, isn't supposed to be possible under USB-IF guidelines, only the other way around A-into-C. So that's weird, lol!).
- Format: Comes in ExFAT (suitable for Win and Mac). Though the "Toolkit" software will advise Mac users to reformat into HFS+ (not APFS format; because AFAIK, externally connected drives are not recommended to use it yet, and/or offer little advantage for externally connected HDD's anyway.)
- Volume size: At 5TB, this is currently the largest size generally available of portable HDD, so is very decent if you need 5TBs (WD only offer 4TB max, at time of writing), and especially given portable SSD's typically stop at 2TB for around 1.5 times the price of this, obviously giving you good storage size value at the loss of SSD-type speeds.
- Design: This is really where this one is a winner, IMO. If you care a bit about things having a pleasing aesthetic while you are using them, then this just may be for you. I like the way LaCie here have done the interesting diamond cut design on both the edges and corners. And being metal, similar to Apple's stuff (hence their Space Grey exclusive colour!), it has a quality feel.
I bought the Space Grey 5TB version, the other colour being obviously silver (Moon Silver to be precise) to match Apple's aesthetics, but there are ones in TB sizes 1/2/4/5 to fit ones need (although the 1TB model is only available in the silver not grey).
- Warranty: 2-year limited hardware warranty.
Software/services included...
- "Toolkit": Syncs files between mirrored folders on your computer and portable drives.
- "Seagate Rescue plan": AFAICT, you don't get even 1yr included, instead they are offering this as upgrade options (10 USD/2yrs or 15 USD/3yrs), quote:
'Purchase to gain peace of mind knowing your files are protected even when a device fails. In the event of a drive crash, virus or failure your data can be retrieved at no extra cost!'
- Adobe Creative Cloud, All Apps: You get 1 month subscription free of Adobe's "All Apps" plan level, for you to trial as many as you want within the month. When setting up the drive, it'll walk you through getting it and you'll need to give them your card info in order to do so -- you may want to unsubscribe straight away, if you think you will forget to do so a month later! (AFAIU, current CC users may be able to add the month to an existing plan?).
So that's it really. Now go and buy one!

Written by James S from London

02/03/2019

18 of 19 people found this useful

Is this review useful?It's a portable hard drive: works as desired, while looking nice.

Answer

This one won’t work with the iPad Pro as it’s not supported (I have it and the iPad Pro). It says “C
This one won’t work with the iPad Pro as it’s not supported (I have it and the iPad Pro). It says “Cannot read the connected storage media” formatted as APFS.

Answer

~140MBytes/s read & write.
(I have the 5TB space grey one, and tested with Blackmagic Speed Test;
~140MBytes/s read & write.
(I have the 5TB space grey one, and tested with Blackmagic Speed Test; other sizes will be the same, BTW.)
All USB 3 single drive portable (non-SSD) spinning HDD's, using either USB-A or USB-C, at 5Gbit or 10Gbit connections will feature similar maximum speeds when empty. Towards the end, as they fill to around 70-80% data stored on them, they typically lose some speed, so when only ~20% left they'll normally slow a bit.
If you need higher speeds in this form factor (say ~500MBytes read/writes) you'll need a portable SSD of some sort, handily including the SSD versions of this LaCie model, though at significantly higher cost, of course.
Whichever type you get; all these early-2019 LaCie 'Mobile Drive' models look nice, though!